sociopath

[soh-see-uh-path, soh-shee-]

noun

Psychiatry.

1. a person with a psychopathic personality whose behavior is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

sociopath

/ ˌsəʊsɪˈɒpəθɪ, ˈsəʊsɪəˌpæθ /

noun

1. psychiatry another name for psychopath

sociopath

1. Someone whose social behavior is extremely abnormal. Sociopaths are interested only in their personal needs and desires, without concern for the effects of their behavior on others. (Compare psychopath.)

Other Word Forms

• sociopathic adjective
• sociopathy noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sociopath¹

First recorded in 1940–45; socio- + -path

Example Sentences

Asked on Friday why he used "sociopath", Mr Linehan replied: "Because the things he was involved in caused great misery to people."

From BBC

"All but one of the characters is a sociopath, so the movie works on almost no levels. I love to put it on and yell at it."

From BBC

Finnigan, the retired detective, attended the virtual hearing and perceived no difference in the “pathological lying sociopath” he began studying in 1979.

From Los Angeles Times

Bundy is the book’s charismatic centerpiece, a handsome, well-dressed sociopath in shiny patent-leather shoes, flitting from college to college, job to job, corpse to corpse.

From Los Angeles Times

Install a vicious, undisciplined sociopath as would-be dictator of the United States, unleashing a worldwide reaction of anti-American loathing.

From Salon

Related Words

• lunatic